Meet Tinashe, Hip Hop’s New Creative Chameleon

Tinashe has been working. Working hard. “I’ve been in the studio every. Day. All. Month,” she deadpans on an unusually stormy day in LA. The damp weather is good for the typically sun-bleached city, which has bobbed in and out of water crises over the past several years, due not only to lack of rain but also to the abundance of water soaked up by celebrity lawns and untold thousands of palm trees that jut from every square mile from the San Fernando Valley to the shores of Santa Monica.

It’s a city that works for the young R’n’B phenomenon – she’s lived there since she was eight years old and still resides at her parents’ house – perpetually sunny with shades of noir.

Get an exclusive preview of our shoot and interview with the new first lady of the urban music scene below, then buy British GQ Style Spring/Summer 2017 to see the rest…

ON THE DIVERSITY OF HER MUSIC:
“I will do a collaboration with Britney Spears, and fucking die over it, and then at the same time I’ll be working with someone like Metro Boomin. Or I’ll be over here in the studio working with KDA. Recently I have done even more out-of-the-box stuff, like I collaborated with Enrique Iglesias. So, I don’t think I really need to bend to any of the ideas that people have about me.”ON HER NEXT ALBUM, JOYRIDE:
“The good thing that fans should be excited about is that the album is just getting better and better. It’s not sitting in limbo, it’s being improved upon and growing all the time. Even since a year ago, I feel like I’ve changed a lot. I’m a 24-year-old woman, and when you’re my age, you can grow a lot in a year. Even musically and creatively, I’m inspired by new things. The energy shifts. It’s an evolution, but it’s continuing to get more exciting, more relevant, and just better. I hope everyone is patient with me, but when it does drop, it’s going to be fucking worth it.”